Thursday, November 25, 2010

All of these fascinate me. I have trouble throwing away even the seemingly most ridiculous pieces of old paper -- a magazine subscription card from 1965, a bookmark from 1975.

Each one offers an opportunity for some entertaining archaeology.

What the heck is it? Who made it? Why did they make it? What was the social context in which is was made? Is the company or product still around?

Each piece can tell a story. And the beauty of it is, the story path I'm led down by one item might be entirely different than the story path you're led down. No two tales would be alike. And that's fine.

This blog will be a place for those explorations.

Footnotes1. One notable exception: Writing an introductory post to launch a blog is not fascinating to me.

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About the Author

I'm Chris Otto, a Pennsylvania resident and journalist whose hobbies and interests include old books, ephemera, history, folklore, alpacas, photography and much more. Never stop reading, learning and asking questions! I consider this blog to be a spiritual descendant of Microsoft Encarta and a companion to Wikipedia. Every piece of paper tells a story.
Reach me at chrisottopa (at) gmail.com.

As (kind of) featured in The New York Times...

Papergreat was mentioned in Stephanie Clifford's August 7, 2011, article in The New York Times titled "Shopper Receipts Join Paperless Age." Find out why, years ago, I held onto a receipt for a hot dog!

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